I’m not taking a stand against the bad-for-you ingredients or boycotting the jacked-up price or the fact that Samoas aren’t called Samoas anymore (they’re now Caramel deLites), and I certainly don’t have anything against the Girls Scouts organization. I’m just turned off by the whole thing. Here’s why.

A few days ago I received a text from a mom I know that read: “It’s girl scout cookie time! Want to order some from Hannah Jones* at $4 a box? Let me know.”

I ignored it. First of all, a text? Clearly a cut-and-pasted one with no personal touch. Second, the mom is doing the selling not the kid? I see these people every week at dance class. Every. Week. I know the girl well. She could have asked me herself and I would have said yes. I would have ordered a bunch. I would have asked her questions about her troop and what they planned to do with the money. Despite this rant, I am not a scary person at all. But, a text?! C’mon.

Not to get all “back in my day” but back in my day when I was a Girl Scout, I went door-to-door and made the uncomfortable asks myself. My friends and I set up tables outside of grocery stores. We called our aunts and uncles in different states. There were always the girls whose parents brought their order sheets to work with them and they were usually the ones who sold the most — and got all the cool-seeming incentives — but my parents refused to do that for me. And I get it. Isn’t the point of having little girls sell cookies to teach them something about business? About interacting with other people? About going outside of their comfort zone to accomplish something that will ultimately make them feel really good about themselves? And perhaps most important, to teach them about rejection? I like to think that all my years of getting turned down from my mean old neighbor prepared me for some of the disappointments I’ve faced in the real world.

My daughter isn’t old enough to be in Girls Scouts yet, so I have no idea how it works these days. I’m assuming there are still plenty of girls who hit the pavement and do the selling themselves. I hope so. And sure, maybe I’m overplaying the importance of a box of cookies and being too old-fashioned about the whole thing. But I can’t be the only one who thinks this woman’s approach is a little off. Is it another symptom of the helicopter parenting world we live in? Or the technological one where face-to-face interactions are few and far between? Am I being too hard on another mom who’s just trying to do the best she can for her kid? Perhaps. And perhaps she just caught me pre-coffee on a rough morning. But I’m still not getting my Thin Mints from her.

Most people at my job leave the sign-up form on the breakroom table. No child involved with selling those cookies.

BTW, what cookie did you use in your picture up above? Looks more like a Peppermint Patty than a GS cookie.

Sarah N

My husband took an order form to work, but then we designated a day when my daughter would wait in the employee parking lot before his shift to meet each customer, give them their cookies, and look them in the eye and thank them. It is very important to keep the girl as involved in the process as possible. But due to the nature of the business, she can’t walk in there and solicit cookie orders.

Sarah N

My daughter started selling Girl Scout cookies last year. We went door to door and she spoke to every customer, even though she was a shy Daisy. She also worked plenty of cookie booths. The official Girl Scout policy is that THE GIRLS are to sell the cookies, not the parents. Of course, she was in the first grade so I had to help handle the money and step in when she got flustered, but I expect she’ll need less and less help each year. All the Girl Scouts in the world shouldn’t be punished because one mom you know is doing it wrong. Instead, maybe you could use the Girl Scouts Cookie Finder app to find a cookie booth near you where you can purchase face-to-face from a girl who’s making the effort.

Monica

The girls are supposed to be doing the selling, not the parents. I wouldn’t buy from a text either.

gulguli12

Will your children do everything the way you used to, in your childhood? The world is changing and kids these days are involved in more activities than we used to be , so maybe selling cookies in person is no longer the charming priority it used to be.

Franziska Fischer

Going door to door. Are you insane? It is NOT safe. Or haven’t you noticed all of the pedophiles snatching and murders of little girls? Get with the times lady! There is nothing wrong with utilizing the new methods on social media. And as for you, you are so old fashioned you can bake your own damn cookies. What a wast of time reading your crap! I feel sorry for any of your kids. Geez much ado about progress!

Liuao

Studies have been conducted showing it’s safer for children today than it was when I was younger, and I’m in my thirties. I went door-to-door…with family members, not by myself, because they made it a priority to do so. When parents do everything for their children, they learn how to do nothing. Progress isn’t an issue so much as acting like we live in armageddon and the only purpose of childhood is fun. Furthermore, you do realize there are civilized ways to disagree with someone rather than telling them off and cursing them out, right? There’s your second example.

skadanoir

I just wanted to make a few points since you did mention you were not involved with Girl Scouts.

#1 – Jacked Up Prices: Each council sets the price of cookies and the money from those cookies is used to make sure Girl Scout opportunities are available to all types of girls in the local area. As people have become less generous over the years in their donations to the councils, they are forced to raise the cost to compensate for the lack of funds to support the troops. With that being said a 6oz package of Milanos is about $3 (plus tax) and none of that money helps a local youth organization. So GS cookies aren’t really all that expensive. You typically get more than 6oz and around 50% of the price remains with the troop or local council.

#2 Door-to-Door Sales: In my personal experience with my own daughter (now in her 5th year as a scout) going door to door got us nowhere. We spent 3 horrible hours in the freezing rain traipsing all over our neighborhood and she only sold 12 boxes (bought by only 3 families). We encountered a group of drunk people (one blew smoke in my face). We witnessed a domestic dispute with lots of cursing. And 99% of the doorbells rung went unanswered despite being able to tell folks were home. One person looked through her window right at my daughter in her cute uniform and still didn’t answer the door. People are jerks.

So my daughter sells to friends and family in person, over the phone and online. I post to Facebook because more people respond through Facebook. But she has to take their orders and deliver/write Thank You cards.

#3 Parents Selling: Girls who are not involved in the sale are the result of their parents not wanting to be “bothered”. The sale is structured so that girls do learn about the different skills. My daughter creates a goal, figures out who she wants to ask, and how many booths she will need to participate in after initial orders are turned in. She also helps count the money (I double and triple check of course), organizing the boxes, and hand delivers almost all of the orders (a few exceptions are made for some of the people I work with since I only see them at work and she is in school, but a Thank You card is always attached to their order). So no, some girls are not getting much out of the selling, but they do benefit from every sale made and there will always be “those” parents that do all selling for their kids.

Finally, if you want to support your friend’s daughter just text her back that you’d love to order cookies from her daughter over the phone or in person. That puts it back on the girl, but also shows the mom you aren’t going to order without some personal interaction.

Sarah N

Great points! I just took the cookie training, and actually it turns out 55% of proceeds go to the local council, and 21% goes to the troop and girl rewards. So that means over 76% stays with Girl Scouts in some form, and 21% goes to pay the bakery. And I love that they offer rewards to the girls in the form of ‘Cookie Credits’ these days, so that girls can help pay for their materials and camps.

Laura Strickland

The Samoa name wasn’t changed. There are two companies that bake Girl Scout cookies. Little Brownie Bakers uses the Samoa name, and ABC Bakers uses Caramel deLites. Your local Girl Scout council must have changed bakers which happens from time to time.

http://oneruudmom.blogspot.com/ Jules Ruud

Yes. You are being way too hard on the whole situation. It’s 2016. People email, text, and Facebook because it’s convenient and fast. Face to face contact is hard Now you can make a jab at helicopter parenting, but no kid should be “hitting the pavement” without a parent present which sort of defeats the whole purpose of you making that jab in the first place. I say lighten up and support the cause because you know it’s a good one.

Alexis Stanton Abell

I stopped reading your high and mighty post halfway through. Clearly you don’t know how current girl scout sales work. Girls still do booths and door to door sales – and they are now learning digital components that will be necessary skills in their lives. My daughter sat down with me to send out the 12 emails that earns a patch. We learned how to bring up the sales report and send thank you emails.

You win nothing by declaring your boycott of girl scout cookies. In fact, you bring a negative light to a learning opportunity for young girls.